Monash IVF apologises to woman implanted with wrong embryo

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A woman has given birth to a stranger's baby, after the wrong embryo was implanted while she was receiving IVF treatment. Melbourne-based fertility company, Monash IVF, made the discovery in February when an extra embryo was found in storage.

Transcript

00:01The mistake occurred at the Monash IVF clinic here in Brisbane.

00:06Now Monash IVF is blaming human error for the transferring of the wrong thawed embryo to the wrong parents.

00:13Now Monash says it was alerted to this incident back in February

00:17when the birth parents requested that the remainder of their embryos be transferred to another provider.

00:23It's when the clinic went to do so that they discovered that there was additional embryos.

00:28Now an investigation has been launched and that's when the error was uncovered.

00:33Now Monash IVF has apologised to both sets of parents for this mix up.

00:38They say they're devastated by what's happened and will support these parents

00:42through what is an extremely distressing time.

00:45Now they say they have conducted a review of their processes

00:49and are confident that this is an isolated incident.

00:53Now experts the ABC has spoken to says that this may be an Australian first

00:59although similar incidents have occurred overseas.

01:02In the US last year there were reports that two separate parents had their embryos swapped.

01:09Now those babies were born and then raised by the wrong set of biological parents for a number of months

01:15before they had to make the really awful decision to swap them back.

01:19We've of course seen a number of errors in IVF here in Australia.

01:23We've seen the incidences of the wrong sperm being used for the wrong parents

01:28which has raised concerns about the need for genetic testing.

01:32And late last year Monash IVF actually settled a class action lawsuit

01:37for around $56 million over allegations that it used inaccurate genetic testing

01:43and that it also destroyed viable embryos.

01:47Now although Monash IVF settled in that case they were not required to admit liability.

01:53Now experts are at pains to say that these errors do happen but they are extremely rare.

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